Activities of Sylvia LIMMER related to 2021/0213(CNS)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the proposal for a Council directive restructuring the Union framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity (recast)
Amendments (1)
Amendment 27 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 1 a (new)
Recital 1 a (new)
(1a) The tax base should be primary energy consumption. It is well known that the use of so-called renewable sources involves high energy losses during conversion, for example the transformation of wind energy into hydrogen through electrolysis and then back into electricity. With the ostensible aim of avoiding double taxation, these renewable energies merely serve to encourage tax-subsidised energy waste, thereby undermining all energy efficiency targets, which always relate to primary consumption, moreover. In calculating the environmental benefits allegedly arising from the newly introduced tax structure, applicable to wind and solar energy for example, it is also necessary to factor in the massive areas of land and the substantial quantities of material required for energy generation purposes. It must be remembered that land and materials are not infinitely available, thereby refuting the oft-repeated but inaccurate assertion that renewable energies are inexhaustible. Resulting pressure on the environment increases disproportionately, the larger the number of interim conversion processes required and the smaller the percentage of primary energy actually contained in the final energy generated. However, with the development of the so-called energy transition process, energy conversion products such as hydrogen become increasingly important for interim storage purposes. Owing to their fluctuating nature, renewable energies, unlike fossil fuels, cannot provide the necessary baseload power in the absence of other battery storage technologies also involving the processing of raw materials.